Christmas

Classical music festival in Nazareth brings Arabs, Jews together for Christmas.

 I’ll hazard a guess and say you weren’t expecting Christmas to feature as the main topic this week. After all, there are many pressing defence and security related matters arguably more important.

Admittedly, the title is slightly misleading, the festival which is an annual event, celebrated 250 years of Beethoven this year. It was held at the Polyphony Conservatory in Nazareth, last week.

The conservatory’s director Nabil Abboud Ashkar estimates that about 35 percent of the audience is local, including Christian and Muslim Nazarenes who support the conservatory. “The rest of the people who came for the festival were mostly Jewish tourists from out of town. Some are long-time supporters of the conservatory, but many are simply people who want a weekend away in a nearby destination that feels somewhat, well, foreign.” Ashkar said.

Currently with government-imposed travel restrictions to many overseas destinations, Mr. Ashkar’s observation rings true.

Today Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel” and the largest city in the north of of the country with a population of close to 80,000 residents predominantly Arab citizens of Israel, of whom 69% are Muslim and 30.9% Christian.

“The first Christians wouldn't recognise today's Santa-centric holiday, let alone figure out what that tree is doing in the living room.” Claims Elon Gilad in a piece he wrote for Haaretz. “The first historic record of the holiday is a calendar dating from 354 CE, belonging to a rich Roman Christian named Philocalus.

That calendar tells us that on the same date - December 25 - another holiday was celebrated, marking the birth of Sol Invictus, “the Unconquered Sun.” That was a new pagan cult, worshiping a new sun deity. (The same Roman Sol Invictus/Greek Helios that appears in the centre panel of the zodiac mosaic in the Beit Alpha synagogue as well as other ancient synagogues). In the same article Elon Gilad traces other Christian traditions from antiquity to the present day.

By most accounts, in the early centuries of the Christian Era Nazareth was no more than an insignificant village. It’s population at that time is variously estimated at about 400 residents. However, nearby Bethlehem in Galilee was more populous.  

Jessica Steinberg Times of Israel columnist and author posed a provocative question in a piece she wrote seven years ago. Was Jesus born in a different Bethlehem?

A sub-heading clarified the intriguing query in Ms. Steinberg’s article.

“An Antiquities Authority archaeologist argues that the Christian saviour was born in Galilee, not Judea.”

“The New Testament claims Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judea, but one rogue Israeli archaeologist says it is far more likely the Christian saviour was born in Bethlehem in Galilee, more than 96 kilometres from Jerusalem.

Archaeologist Aviram Oshri spent nearly eleven years excavating Bethlehem in Galilee — an ancient biblical village near Nazareth. He believes the traditional account of Jesus’ birthplace may be wrong.

But when he presented his findings to the Israel Antiquities Authority, they were rejected out of hand.

 Oshri argues, “The town of Bethlehem in Judea, about 10 kilometres south of Jerusalem, has always been considered the birthplace of Jesus. According to the New Testament, Joseph and Mary were living in Bethlehem in Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth and later moved to Nazareth. In another account, Joseph and Mary, who was then nine months pregnant, travelled more than 175 kilometres on a donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in Judea, Joseph’s hometown, in order to register in a Roman census. “It makes much more sense that she would have travelled seven kilometres,” the distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem in Galilee.

Getting Jesus to Bethlehem in Judea is an important part of the Christian narrative.

However, there are also variances regarding the date of Jesus’ birth.

Various Christian denominations celebrate Christmas at different times. Some of the differences can be accounted for by alignment with either the Julian or Gregorian calendars and a later calendarial adjustment.

The season of the event has also been called into question. Tour guide and Jerusalem Post columnist Gil Zohar wrote, “The New Testament is mute about the date of Jesus’ birth. Indeed, it may have occurred in the spring rather than shortly after the winter solstice since Luke records that shepherds were “abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night.” Traditionally shepherds in Palestine guard their flocks around the clock at the spring lambing time; during the winter months, the animals are penned in corrals, unwatched.

Adoration of the Shepherds - Matthias Stomer

Regardless of Aviram Oshri’s suggested alternative Bethlehem and the seasonal variances, the Christian nativity narrative will remain unchanged.

 Christmas in Israel outside the main Christian communities is barely sensed during normal times and even less when we are moving in and out of lockdown.

However, those of us who grew up in other countries where Christianity is the major religion, have experienced Christmas at close hand. Nonetheless, a quick Google scan revealed a lot I didn’t know about Christmas or had forgotten.

The Catholic Church gradually came to embrace Christmas, but the Protestant Reformation gave the holiday a good knock on the chin. In the 16th century, Christmas became a casualty of this church schism, with reformist-minded Protestants considering it little better than paganism,

In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas.

The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings.

Though many outright acts of protest followed, with people defying the Puritans and continuing to celebrate the holiday, albeit in a less public manner.

In England even after the restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, celebration of Christmas wasn’t completely restored to its former glory.

At roughly the same time, the tradition of setting up a tree in one’s home and lighting candles began to spread in Germany. The concept spread among European nobility during the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching the lower classes only in the late 19th century.

The huge success of Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" in 1843 greatly contributed to popularising Christmas, and gave it much of the qualities we associate with it today: a holiday centred around the family, as opposed to a community holiday celebrated in church.

The book also contributed to the popularity of the phrase “Merry Christmas,”

After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favour, including Christmas. In fact, Christmas wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.

Christmas traditions have warped over time, arriving at their current state a little more than a century ago.

Stephen Nissenbaum, author of "The Battle for Christmas" said

“All of this gift-giving, along with the secular embrace of Christmas, now has some religious groups fuming. The consumerism of Christmas shopping seems, to some, to contradict the religious goal of celebrating Jesus’ birth. In some ways excessive spending is the modern equivalent of the revelry and drunkenness that made the Puritans frown.” Summing up Stephan Nissenbaum said,

"There's always been a push and pull, and it's taken different forms. It might have been alcohol then, and now it's these glittering toys."

 Happy Holidays.

 

Beni,                                                   23rd of December, 2021.